Minutes:
The Director of Strategy, Engagement and
Growth introduced the report and stated that the Corporate Peer
Challenge had been undertaken in January 2022, which had been led
by the Local Government Association and officer/Member peers from
other local authorities. She stated that the LGA and peers had met
with staff Members and partners, and their report had been received
in Spring 2022. She explained that from this report an action plan
had been developed and published on the Council’s website in
June 2022. The Director of Strategy, Engagement and Growth
explained that government intervention had begun in September 2022
which saw work start to develop an Improvement and Recovery Plan,
and which could show similar themes from the Corporate Peer
Challenge actions. She felt that the Corporate Peer Challenge would
be subsumed by the Improvement and Recovery Plan, which would be
shared with Members in the New Year and taken to the appropriate
Full Council meeting. She stated that the process was iterative and
would also feed information in from the Best Value
Inspection.
The Chair highlighted that the report felt the Council took the
lead on too many projects, and subsequently damaged its reputation
with stakeholders. The Chair asked what had changed regarding this
issue since the publication of the action plan. The Director of
Strategy, Engagement and Growth explained that the Council had
previously taken the lead on many projects with a range of
partners, such as the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the Economic
Development Strategy implementation plan, and the Thames Freeport.
She stated that the Council now had an opportunity to review and
reprioritise major projects, and allow the voluntary and private
sectors to take the lead when they were best placed to do so.
Councillor Kent stated that Members had spoken to the LGA regarding
the Corporate Peer Challenge in January 2022, and the report was
only being presented to the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny
Committee one year later. He felt that the report was now out of
date due to the Improvement and Recovery Plan, and asked why the
report had not been presented to Members earlier, and sought
assurance that the Improvement and Recovery Plan would be shared
with Members. The Leader agreed with Councillor Kent that the
report should have been shared with the Committee earlier. He felt
that the Council needed to resolve the issues with finances, but
also needed to undergo a cultural change and remove the culture of
secrecy through leadership. The Chair agreed that the amount of
time that had passed since the peer review had taken place devalued
the report, and asked officers to ensure the Improvement and
Recovery Plan was distributed to Members in a timely way. The
Leader explained that the Improvement and Recovery Plan was an
iterative process and would need to be agreed by the Secretary of
State before being shared with Members.
RESOLVED: That the Committee:
1. Noted the outcomes of the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge in
January 2022 and the actions as part of the wider response to the
Best Value Inspection and intervention process.
2. Feedback on any specific areas which committee members feel
should be focussed on in future iterations of the Improvement and
Recovery Plan.
Councillor Duffin left the meeting at 7.51pm
Supporting documents: